Toph's Crush: Tea, Talks & Pai Sho
by Jesus.Lives
Summary: When Toph first realizes Zuko isn't half bad. ONE SHOTS X 3.
1. Tea

**This is based on when Iroh and Toph met and if it was Zuko and Toph instead.**

**Toph wanted someone who'd be fine with her taking care of herself... and Zuko offers just that (unlike the way Aang and Katara acted when she joined the merry group of travellers - whew, did they cross the line).**

**Unlike Iroh's polite gestures to pour her tea, she realizes what she really wants is just someone to leave her alone most times, and be there to listen if need be.**

_**I don't own Avatar. Reviewers get love. Please review. For love. :P**_

**_If you want to see the Zhao/Zuko/Iroh showdown mentioned in this fic - go to my profile - the story "Traitors and Enemies"_**

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They'd stopped over in a small town. Sitting in a small room, Zuko was taking a rest from his training Aang. He breathed in the tea he'd gotten from the kind family they were staying with.

The first time he'd had tea since it happened. Since Zhao killed Iroh in front of him.

He never liked tea before, but he took his Uncle's advice as much as that it would help him relax before training.

His priorities had changed. The Avatar could help him. Help him get his sister.

Perhaps his father who gave the order that his uncle and himself could be killed at the hands of the firenation.

The room was quiet all for one second, when a slightly irate earthbender entered. She smelt the air.

"Who's drinking tea?"

Zuko spoke. "I am."

"Aren't you going to offer me any?" She queried, curling up her toes and stopping in the middle of the room.

He didn't look up and barely acknowledged her, "No."

"I'm having a cup."

"It's on the table."

"Aren't you going to pour it for me?"

Zuko was getting mildly irritated by this stage, his answer was final. "No."

The blind girl went to the table, found a cup and poured her tea. She smiled inhaling the scented leaves.

_I can't put my finger on it. But there's something I like about the firenation bender._

She thought, while going down to sit in a comfortable silence beside him.


	2. Talks

Zuko isn't totally against sharing. After all, he shared with Aang when he wasn't even awake (just waiting for someone to care about his tragic story it seems).

I took a lot from random episodes - set after my "tea" fic.

Insert fancy way of me saying I don't own Avatar here.

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Toph was wobbling on her seat, laughing. "So, you called..." she said spluttering "your uncle and a member of the white lotus - old gasbags?"

She was chuckling again. He grinned. It would have been more funny at the time if he hadn't been so annoyed.

Or if they hadn't later made him sit outside a room waiting for two hours.

"I remember when I first called Katara, Sugar Queen; she had a fit." Toph kept grinning, "She even yelled at Precious" she smirked, reffering to Aang. She waved her hand back nonchalantly. "That's when I first ran away to join the Avatar's elite squad" her voice was stoic but she meant it in humour.

Zuko looked down. He didn't really want to talk about Katara right now.

But the younger girl was being nice. So he decided to reciprocate.

"You were 12 when you ran away?"

"Still am" The grin faded. "My parents thought I needed to be protected. I may have been lucky to be born, I was born blind... but they still acted like I was on a tenuous thread between life and death. It took enough convincing for them to allow me to earthbend in the first place."

The fire nation prince kept his head down. "I'm sorry."

She didn't say anything.

"I was banished when I was thirteen" he said finally.

She offered him a smile. "It's not easy is it?"

Neither of them were alone anymore. Which still didn't mean that they fit in.

He shook his head sadly and then remembered she couldn't see him. "No" he said, voice husky.

Toph grinned again, changing the mood. "Have I ever told you what I called the most famous earth bender in the East?"


	3. Pai Sho

**I was reading that other weird fanfic where Toph got her period and realized they hadn't dealt with another momentous child to adult transformation point on the series.**

**Here she has a little crush on Zu-Zu **

(well more than Sokka or Aang)

when he's travelling with them...

**I got my inspiration from 'the Library' and 'the Desert' joint episodes. When Toph said "I've held books before... and I've gotta say, they just don't do it for me", I started thinking that she would have had to have done something else besides earth bending (especially since she had no real friends)!**

**So I came up with this.**

**Enjoy!**

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She was frowning, though she never looked frightened and innocent. Now, just persistance shining through. "I've never been kissed."

He raised an eyebrow. What this had to do with him, he had no idea. But instincts were telling him to leave.

They'd talked, but the last thing he wanted to be was a crutch for a prepubescent girl, the way he had to sit around awkwardly when that other lonely girl Song, decided to talk about all her woes when his uncle and himself were on the brink of desperation.

He wouldn't be that desperate again. He debated between saying nothing, or appeasing her with a question. He chose the latter. "So?"

She slammed her hand down on the table in front of him, gripping it and causing the stone to splinter. "So. ... even Twinkle Toes has. .. and Sugar Queen. And... Sokka" She wrinkled her nose at the older boy's name. Evidently wondering why anyone would want to kiss the King of the Cactus Juice. She supposed he could be fun... but she remembered the off way he smelt sometimes and continued pulling her face.

Zuko couldn't stay there being sympathetic. He went to get up. She pushed him back down and held up a Pai Sho piece, feeling the grooves of it in her hand.

"We'll play. If I win, I get what I want. If you win, you get what you want."

What could she possibly offer him, when he'd lost everything? Certainatly not enough to play a stupid game so she could have a trivial experience at his expense.

But it sparked his interest enough to ask "And what do I want?"

"You've spent a few months fighting Aang, right? But you always get beaten. I used to as well... until I found out what his weaknesses are."

A smile played upon his determined face. This was going to be easy.

He'd never really played Pai Sho before, but he'd watched it enough time. His uncle mulling over moves.

She was a blind girl, younger than him. Probably never even played Pai Sho before at her age.

Toph wasn't really going to let out any of Aang's secrets. She respected him too much. But she wasn't going to lose. She was going to give this cocky teen a beating that he'd have to remember.

He was seriously considering but finally waved it off. "I don't kiss kids" he said bluntly.

She scoffed. "You don't kiss anybody, fireboy. Last chance. Take it or leave it."

She put the Pai Sho piece away._How hard was it going to be._ He thought again. He got up. "Let's play."

They sat down at the table across the room. Her hands flickered as they lay out the tiles. He picked his, she picked hers.

Sitting in silence, they began to play...

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"It's over Princess" She smirked.

Of course he wouldn't have expected her to know how to play. But what else was she to do - trapped in a house all day long? Unable to read, at a loss of entertainment. And her parents always kept some pretty interesting company.

She was fortunate enough to have learnt from a white lotus member herself.

He was angry. But he grew more and more angry, just after the first few seconds of play, when he realized that she had a talent for the game; so it was to be expected that he was angry now.

In fact, it was his very temper the sole reason she won so easily. He gave himself away, the way his hands vibrated with frustration on the table before and after every move.

"I want to play you again." He said frustrated and slamming his fist down on the Pai Sho table disturbing all the individual little pieces.

Toph just stretched out, putting her feet up on the chair beside her and putting her arms behind her head. "I believe you still owe me..." she started.

This didn't make him any less frustrated or angry. He bent down to the blind girl and kissed her abrupt and fast on the cheek.

She grinned. "Whatever you want fancy boy." She said now, resetting the table.

She managed to get three kisses out of him that afternoon, before realizing she was being too cruel. He would never find out Aang's weak spot unless he found it for himself.

He'd have to keep going on teaching him and seeing what he could pick up.

She grinned as he left the room, conspiring against the young earthbender with every thought he could muster.

_Was it worth it?_ She had to ask herself.

_As much as making Aang stop giant rolling boulders with a blindfold on._ She answered herself, her grin tightening.

And Zuko wouldn't breathe a word of it to anyone.


End file.
